Bernadette Marie and “Home Run”

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Interview With Bernadette Marie

Susana: What inspired you to start writing?

Bernadette: As a tween I wanted to be an actress, but early on being the control freak I am now, I decided to write my own material. So, I started by writing “teen” movies. That year there were many mini-series that came to TV and I found that I enjoyed reading a book and then watching the movie. So I changed paths and began to write a novel (that of course would be turned into a mini-series starring me.) So far no movie deals, but the passion for writing was sparked.

Susana: How long have you been writing?

Bernadette: I stared penning my first novel at 13. But very seriously I took the title of author in 2007 when I penned twelve books, many of which are now published.

Susana: What advice would you give to writer just starting out?

Bernadette: Write it all first and get it out of you. Don’t go back to each chapter, just get the story out. Edit once after that and send it on. As authors we pick apart our work so much that we often ruin it trying to get the best version for someone else to see.

Susana: Are you a plotter or a panther?

Bernadette: Such a pantser! Sometimes I’ll make me a guide to keep on track, well usually the characters have other plans.

Susana: Are you working on something at present that you would like to tell us about?

Bernadette: I’m very excited for my new trilogy that will come out in June, July, and August titled The Three Mrs. Monroes. Just the tag line even thrills me: Some men keep secrets—Adam Monroe kept three.

Susana: What are you reading now?

Bernadette: As of today I just finished Nora Roberts’s The Witness. Tomorrow I will start Shadow Spell also by Nora Roberts.

Susana: What author or authors have most influenced your writing?

Bernadette: Sidney Sheldon was the first author who’s writing style encourage me to put pen to paper. He wrote in short, telling paragraphs that made it easy for me to understand and to write. Now, not the way I’d recommend most authors to write, but it got my creativity brewing. After that it was Danielle Steele and later (you might have guessed) Nora Roberts and Debbie Macomber.

Susana: What is your writing schedule like when writing?

Bernadette: Because I run a publishing house too my schedule is very divided between those two things. But when I start inching up on a deadline I am usually not in my office, but my laptop is attached to me at all times. I can’t stop writing once I get on a roll. It just consumes me at all hours.

Susana: What did you want to be when you grew up?

Bernadette: At first I wanted to be a teacher and a singer. There was no reason not to be both.

About Home Run

In one moment Christian Keller’s life was changed. Now as he picks up the pieces he wonders if he can possibly recoup what he lost.

Victoria Lincoln had a promising future with Christian until an accident took the life of her sister and left her as guardian to her two small children.

Their lives have gone in different directions, but Christian and Victoria’s paths will cross again. It will take a lot of change to pick up where they left off—if either of them can.

Excerpt

Quickly, exhaustion took over her body. At some point she knew she’d heard the kids in the hallway with Scott on their way to bed, but she slept through the night.

She’d nearly forgotten he was there until the next morning when she walked downstairs to make her coffee. The deep breathing from the living room startled her a moment. Then she saw him splayed out under a Mickey Mouse blanket. Her breath hitched in her throat at the sight of his bare chest.

Steadying herself with a cleansing breath she walked toward the kitchen.

She was more than grateful that she’d brushed her teeth before coming down, because when Scott walked into the kitchen and pressed himself up behind her she’d let out a sigh. His hard body was close against her and his lips were on her neck.

“Are you feeling better?”

“Uh-huh,” was all she could manage.

“I can call in sick and take care of you.” His voice had dipped sensually and she swallowed hard.

“I have to work.”

He let out a groan and then gave her a peck on the cheek. “Maybe tonight and the rest of the weekend.”

He moved away from her and headed down the hall to the bathroom and Victoria let out the breath she’d been holding. Right. It was Friday. He could come back and spend all weekend.

Scott would be spending the night.

Dear Lord, was she ready for this. She looked down at her shaky hand. Yes. She was ready.

About the Author

Bernadette Marie has been an avid writer since the early age of 13, when she’d fill notebook after notebook with stories that she’d share with her friends. Her journey into novel writing started the summer before eighth grade when her father gave her an old typewriter. At all times of the day and night you would find her on the back porch penning her first work, which she would continue to write for the next 22 years.

In 2007 – after marriage, filling her chronic entrepreneurial needs, and having five children – Bernadette began to write seriously with the goal of being published. That year she wrote 12 books. In 2009 she was contracted for her first trilogy and the published author was born. In 2011 she (being the entrepreneur that she is) opened her own publishing house, 5 Prince Publishing, and has released contemporary titles and has begun the process of taking on other authors in other genres.

Bernadette spends most of her free time driving her kids to their many events. She is also an accomplished martial artist, working her way to her second degree black belt in Tang Soo Do. An avid reader she loves to meet readers who enjoy reading contemporary romances and she always promises Happily Ever After.

Thank you for stopping, Mary. Yes, over-editing is really a thing that so many authors get into. I have authors that reedit years after the book is published and that I think is distracting to new work they should be doing. But we just can’t keep our hands out of our words. 🙂 But…we learn. 🙂

I can tell you… 🙂 There was, of course, the replaying of The Thorn Birds (one of my all time favorite books and movies!) And that was the year the mini-series If Tomorrow Comes came out. (This IS my all time favorite book and comes in a close second…I’m talking nearly on top the other…close second to Thorn Birds mini-series.) Would you have guessed one of these? haha